AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5679 - Modi govt to give legal backing to Aadhaar

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

5679 - Modi govt to give legal backing to Aadhaar - TNN

Modi govt to give legal backing to Aadhaar

Mahendra K Singh, TNN | Jul 14, 2014, 12.49AM IST

Narendra Modi govt has decided to give legal backing to Aadhaar.

NEW DELHI: Ending speculation over the fate of Aadhaar numbers, the BJP government is set to push legislation to ensure legal sanctity to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which was set up to generate unique identification numbers for 1.2 billion residents of the country.

The government is expected to soon approach the Supreme Court and seek vacation of the stay on government's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of welfare schemes.

After getting a thumbs up from PM Narendra Modi, UIDAI is set to accelerate the project to ensure Aadhaar enrollment for around 930 million people by the end of next year.

So far, UIDAI has given Aadhaar numbers to 640 million residents, with 177 million coming from the National Population Register (NPR).

"We are getting cooperation from state governments. UIDAI has already opened 3,000 stations in UP and 1,000 in Bihar. Soon, more stations will be opened to speed up enrollment process in these states," said Rajesh Bansal, assistant director general of UIDAI. These two populous states are crucial for complete rollout of Aadhaar-linked direct benefits transfer (DBT) schemes, he added.

The agency also completed authentication, or de-duplication, for 10 crore people last week.

An official present in a meeting held recently said Modi has asked finance minister Arun Jaitley to try and resolve all legal issues surrounding Aadhaar.

The PM had conveyed his government's intention to continue with UIDAI and sought speedy rollout of DBT scheme, aiming to check duplication and leakages in welfare schemes.

The strong message from Modi is expected to end the turf war, which had raised questions about the survival of the UIDAI project.

Under the UPA regime, both NPR and UIDAI had been given the mandate to collect biometric details of Indian residents. As per the formula worked out to end the turf war between the home ministry and UIDAI, NPR was mandated to enroll 60 million people while UIDAI was to enroll the rest of the population.

The fast-tracking of Aadhaar schemes by the Modi government came after the realization that subsidy burden could be reduced only by checking duplication and leaks in welfare schemes.

UIDAI officials emphasized that the authority was a "bona fide legal entity" administrated "like any office" of the government and was "fully accountable" to Parliament and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

"As far as biometric safety is concerned, we are governed by Information Technology Act," Bansal said.

There was speculation about the fate of UIDAI under the Modi regime since it was conceived by the Congress and BJP's manifesto seemed in favour of the National Population Register (NPR) project.

To accelerate the scheme, the Modi government's first budget allocated around Rs 2,039 crore for the unique identification project in the current fiscal.